"Until the strike ends and we receive work direction from Boeing, we don't know to what extent we can keep ramping up to full production," said Vought spokeswoman Lynn Warne.

A simple majority is required for the offer to be accepted and end the strike by 27,000 Machinists, which started Sept. 6. But approval is not a lock.

"There is a growing 'no vote' (to reject the offer)," a veteran Machinist from Everett said Tuesday. He said many Machinists he has talked with don't see a lot of improvement in Boeing's revised offer.

"What the hell did we strike for?" asked this Machinist, who did not want to be quoted by name.

Even if the strike does end soon, the Machinists may have fatally damaged the employer-union relationship, said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst with Teal Group Corp.

"This strike was the straw that broke the camel's back, and I think Boeing is out of here," he said. "Given its history of labor relations and the attraction of a right-to-work state, the likelihood of them moving out of state is 90, 95 percent in the next 10 years."

He said states where workers can't be required to join unions, particularly in the South, are making "tremendous efforts" to lure aerospace companies such as Boeing.

"They're going to provide the same tax breaks and incentives as Washington state and a much better labor environment," Aboulafia said. Modern aircraft manufacturing uses fewer people and lighter equipment, making it more portable, he said.

Howard Rubel, an analyst with investment bank Jefferies & Co., pointed out that Boeing has moved operations in the past.

"Who knows whether they might do it again?" he asked.

What struck him most forcefully about the strike is that the union appeared determined to walk out, regardless of what Boeing offered.

"I think Boeing tried to offer the best terms it could and the union said, 'We don't (care), we're going to strike anyway,' " he said. "The IAM was very myopic in how it thought it could solve this problem."

The pain wasn't worth the gain of even the most recent offer, he said.

"If one does the math, it appears it was pretty close to a wash. The guys have missed two months of paychecks. It will take them the whole length of the contract to make up for that money," Rubel said.

During the strike, the euro fell against the U.S. dollar, effectively giving Boeing archrival Airbus a financial boost, he said.

That and the credit crunch have made for "a very difficult economic environment, and they (the Machinists) have to be careful they don't price themselves out of the market," he said.

"I think the union wanted a strike all along. It had extraordinary power and decided to use it," he said.

But "if you were looking for a time when Boeing didn't need a strike, this is it -- in the middle of ramp-up for the 787, in a very tough time economically."

He said once the strike ends, investors will want new guidance from Boeing on next year and 2010.

"They want to know whether the outlook is really as bad as the stock price suggests," Campbell said. Shares touched a four-year low earlier this month, closing Tuesday up $6.55 at $48.91.

In its earnings conference call earlier this month, Boeing said it lost about $250 million in profits in September because of the strike, or 35 cents a share, while supplier issues were responsible for another hit of about 25 cents a share.

Industry analysts have estimated that Boeing is losing about $100 million a day, money it is not collecting from customers taking delivery of planes.

The union "has proven itself to be a bad partner, and the next time Boeing has a choice to make about where to make pieces of its planes, I think it will take that into consideration," Campbell said.